Zimmer Hip Replacement Class Action Lawsuit Approved in Canada

A class action lawsuit has been approved in Canada for individuals who have experienced problems with Zimmer Durom Cup hip replacements, which were temporarily recalled in the United States in 2008. 

The hip replacement class action lawsuit was approved last week by British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Gregory Bowen and includes every person in Canada who received a Zimmer Durom Cup hip implant.

The class representative plaintiff is Susan Wilkinson, who began experiencing pain and problems from her Zimmer hip implant only three months after she received it in April 2008. She subsequently had to undergo revision surgery in 2009 to have the Durom Cup removed.

According to a report by The Vancouver Sun, there are at least 33 reports involving Zimmer Durom Cup failures in Canada and about 100 people are ultimately expected to take part in the lawsuit overall.

In the United States, a temporary Zimmer Durom Cup recall was issued in July 2008, only two years after it was introduced. The hip implant was returned to the market a few months later with revised warnings and instructions to ensure that doctors were properly trained on the surgical techniques needed to implant the artificial hip correctly.

The implant was designed to avoid many problems associated with traditional hip replacements, such as instability, limited range of motion and wear of the bearing. However, after a number of reports emerged involving failure of the Zimmer hip replacement within a few years of surgery, doctors began to take note of a higher-than-expected number of cases involving loosening components that required revision surgery.

Approximately 12,000 individuals in the U.S. had the Zimmer Durom Cup hip system implanted between 2006 and 2008, and another 5,000 were implanted in Canada. While Zimmer’s own estimates in 2008 suggested that some doctors experienced failure rates as high as 5.7%, some claims have suggested that the between 20% and 30% of people may experience Zimmer Durom Cup complications.

In June 2010, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation decided to consolidate and centralize all lawsuits over the Zimmer hip replacement in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey as part of a multidistrict litigation (MDL) for pretrial litigation.